Broiling meat and other types of cooking directly over fire has become very popular whether in conjunction with camping, back packing and other outdoor recreational or living activities, on the patio or in the backyard of homes, on porches of apartment houses, and even indoors in fireplaces. A wide variety of stoves, grills and other types of cooking equipment is available, including very elaborate cooking apparatus for the charcoal broiling connoisseurs.
The fuel chiefly used in such direct heat cooking apparatus is charcoal. Wood and dry grass have also been used and, more recently, it has been demonstrated that crumpled newspaper makes a very satisfactory fuel for this type of cooking. The use of newspaper has many advantages, including ready availability and no cost. In most households, old newspapers pose a disposal problem and their use as fuel contributes to the solution of this problem and conserves other forms of energy providing materials.
To a limited extent, cooking grills small enough to be considered portable for camping purposes and the like have been made available. Some, again to a limited extent, have been designed to be reduced in size by partial disassembly, folding, telescoping, etc. for somewhat improved portability.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide a cooking grill which is adapted to use any acceptable type of solid fuel, is large and sturdy enough to cook a substantial batch of meat or other food or support a coffee pot and saucepan, and which may be folded to a compact, self-locking pack for storage and portability.
More specifically, the object is to provide a cooking grill having, for example, a grid area of about one square foot which may be folded to a pack about one foot square and one-half inch thick and having a weight of approximately three and one-half pounds.
A further object is to provide such a cooking grill with a wire, food supporting grid which also serves to hold and lock the folded pack together and provide a handle for hanging or carrying purposes.
Another object is to provide such a cooking grill in which provision is made for supporting the wire grill at either of two different levels above the fire.
Another object is to provide for the optional use of a charcoal grate in such a grill and to provide means for supporting the charcoal grate at one of several possible levels below the wire grid.
Another object is to provide such a cooking grill in which one of the side walls or two adjoining side walls may be hinged outwardly to lie flat on the ground or other grill supporting surface to provide a fireplace effect or a heat source for a reflecting oven.
A further object is to provide a special hinge design by which the side walls of the grill are secured respectively to the four sides of the base of the grill with full freedom to hinge inwardly to lie flat upon the base or upon other side walls of the grill to fold the same into a pack, or to lie flat outwardly.
From another viewpoint, the present invention represents a very substantial improvement over the folding combined broiler, oven and stove of Rolf E. Darbo U.S. Pat. No. 3,892,222, dated July 5, 1975 in that it is more versatile in use and, of major importance, it is simpler in construction, lighter in weight, and folds into a portable pack approximately only half of the thickness of the folded broiler of the patent. Additional features and achievements of the present invention will become apparent as the description of the cooking grill proceeds.